Wednesday, December 13, 2017

AMAZING
meteor shower this week! Go outside about 20:00 hours (8 p.m.) and look
up to see the GEMINIDS ... meteors shooting out of Gemini. The Geminid
meteor shower﻿ appears every year about this time and is our best
shooting star display, with more than 100 meteors appearing each hour.
Sadly, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere the winter weather makes
viewing bad. But if you are lucky enough to live in the Southern
Hemisphere, you have a perfect view on a clear summer night!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

THE
Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe) is a Catholic feast that celebrates the belief that a man encountered
the Virgin Mary, Mexico's patron saint, in Mexico City on December 9
and 12, 1531.

It was said that she was the reincarnation of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.

Born
on the banks of the Rio Grande between the US and Mexico, Antonius
Subia was inspired to paint this portrait of Antinous as Guadalupe.

Antonius says:

I
told them I had seen Antinous on the hilltop but they didn't believe
me, something about drugs and alcohol and that I am a Mexican, and must
be delusional.

So
I let my poncho unfold and pink lotus flowers fell to the floor and
behold there was a miraculous image of ANTINOUS on my poncho, by no
means painted by human hands!

Monday, December 11, 2017

ON December 11th the Religion of Antinous honors SAINT ALESSANDRO ALBANI, who was an Italian aristocrat and cardinal, and a collector and patron of the arts.

It is largely thanks to Cardinal Albani that Antinous experienced a resurgence of interest in the 18th Century which continues to this day.

It is also believed that Albani secretly worshiped the Beauteous Boy as a gay god.

Albani
became a trend-setter and an arbiter of taste. Albani, whose sexuality
was ambivalent, and the openly gay Winkelmann more or less
single-handedly launched a craze throughout the European aristocracy for
Classical art.When
he was 29, by special dispensation from his uncle Pope Clement XI,
Alessandro Albani was made a Cardinal, although he had never been a
priest or member of a lower order.

Indeed,
he would have preferred to pursue a military career. But chronic eye
problems, which eventually resulted in total blindness in old age,
convinced him to take up his uncle's generous offer.He
is said to have been a continuing cause of great concern to his uncle,
due to his worldly and irreligious obsessions, first among these his
passion for art.Cardinal
Albani used his vast wealth to collect Classical art, and to patronize
artists of his day, such as Anton Raphael Mengs, and the "Father of
Archaeology" Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was an open homosexual.The art collection of Cardinal Albani contained an extraordinary number of statues of Antinous,
and these were studied by Winckelmann, who had taken up residence in
the sprawling and very lavish Villa Albani outside of Rome (pictured at
left).And Antinous was the pre-eminent example of male beauty in Classical art. Every aristocrat in Europe wanted a statue or Antinous.
And monarchs such as Frederick the Great of Prussia (who never married
and favored intimate friendships with males) sent out experts to find
statues of Antinous.Thus, the
science of archaeology was born largely through a desire by aristocrats
to furnish their palaces with the sort of Antinous-style Classical art
which Albani had made fashionable.By the
time he died on December 11th in the year 1779, it was rumored that
Cardinal Albani, along with his intimate friends Winckelmann and
neo-classicist painter Anton Mengs, had been secret worshippers of Antinous and Priapus.It was
asserted that they reinstated the religion of the Beloved Boy as a kind
of underground cult along with other, unnamed persons.For this reason, though based largely on rumor, Cardinal Alessandro Albani is sanctified as a Saint of the Religion of Antinous.Although he was a Cardinal of the Catholic Faith, he may in fact have been the firstHigh Priest of Antinous since the extermination of the ancient religion 1,300 years before.

Albani's secret cult ... assuming it truly existed ... is the only known predecessor since ancient times to the current Religion of Antinous.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

EGYPT on Saturday announced the discovery of two small ancient tombs in the southern city Luxor dating back some 3,500 years and hoped it will help the country’s efforts to revive its ailing tourism sector.

The discoveries prove once again that the sands of Egypt still have many mysteries ... and they raise hopes of one day finding the Lost Tomb of Antinous, if not in Egypt then elsewhere.

The tombs, located on the west bank of the river Nile in a cemetery for noblemen and top officials, are the latest discovery in the city famed for its temples and tombs spanning different dynasties of ancient Egyptian history.

"It's truly an exceptional day," Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said. "The 18th dynasty private tombs were already known. But it’s the first time to enter inside the two tombs."

The ministry said one tomb has a courtyard lined with mud-brick and stone walls and contains a six-meter (yard) burial shaft leading to four side chambers. The artifacts found inside were mostly fragments of wooden coffins.

Wall inscriptions and paintings suggest it belongs to era between the reigns King Amenhotep II and King Thutmose IV, both pharaohs of the 18th dynasty.

The other tomb has five entrances leading to a rectangular hall and contains two burial shafts located in the northern and southern sides of the tomb.

Among the artifacts found inside are funerary cones, painted wooden funerary masks, clay vessels, a collection of some 450 statues and a mummy wrapped in linen who was likely of a top official.

A cartouche carved on the ceiling bears the name of King Thutmose I of the early 18th dynasty.

The Antiquities Ministry has made a string of discoveries since the beginning of 2017 in several provinces across Egypt ... including the tomb of a royal goldsmith in the same area and belonging to the same dynasty, whose work was dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Amun.

TODAY is the 300th anniversary of the birth of the flamboyantly gay man who is the father of modern archaeology, our own Saint Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

Born in Stendal, Germany, on December 9, 1717, he is called the father of modern archaeology because of his scientific studies of the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy.

He was a student of classical art and his many writings, including the famous History of Ancient Art, are a testament to his adoration of the male form as manifested in Greek and Roman sculpture. He wrote openly about his homosexual relationships as early as 1763, and eventually found employment with Cardinal Allesandro Albani, whose art collection he catalogued.

Winckelmann is among the first to conduct a serious study of the art of Antinous, and to have written openly about the significance of the relationship between Hadrian and Antinous.

He is also believed to have been part of the first revival of the Religion of Antinous, and Priapus, led in secret by Cardinal Albani.

Winckelmann was murdered in his hotel room in Trieste by a young man with whom he was having a casual love affair, on the 8th of June 1768.

He was stabbed multiple times including repeated wounds to the groin, evidently out of sexual violence.

For his work as a student of the art of Antinous, and as an early believer the Religion of Antinous, and for the violence of his death, Johann Joachim Winckelmann is revered as an Innocent Martyr of the Religion of Antinous, perhaps the most specifically Antinonine of all those who died as a consequence of their desire for beautiful men.

Notice the painting above by Anton Von Maron. Winckelmann sits in a magnificent costume, gazing on an engraving of Antinous and writing his thoughts, as though the painter has distracted him from his meditation ... but we can be be sure that Winckelmann wanted us to know that Antinous was at the forefront of his thoughts.

THE most brilliant novel about Antinous to appear in over half a century ... THE LOVE GOD ... is authored by our own MARTINUS CAMPBELL, priest of Antinous.While
that sounds like biased praise, we Antinomaniacs are hard to please and
would not hesitate to pick apart a poorly researched book or one that
denigrated Antinous, even if it were written by one of our best friends
... perhaps especially if it were. At
the same time, a sycophantic book that presented Antinous as being
cloyingly sweet and angelic would be unbearable and not believable.So
we are gratified (and greatly relieved) to report that this book truly
is a remarkable work of historical fiction right up there with
Marguerite Yourcenar's landmark MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN 60 years ago.Martin
traces the life of Antinous from the moment his tousle-haired head
emerges from his mother's womb under auspicious stars in Asia Minor to
the moment his head sinks beneath the swirling waters of the Nile on a
starry evening in Egypt.Antinous
comes to life as a young man of breath-taking beauty who is filled with
conflicting passions and loyalties. He is a young man who at times is
naive, yet at other times worldly wise with an ability to see the world
as it is ... and to describe it with at times brutal honesty to the most
powerful man in the world.Above
all, this is a gentle love story between Antinous and Emperor Hadrian,
himself a man of contradictory passions and priorities.Martin
himself is a man shares these passions. He has rebounded from a series
of debilitating strokes to resume a daunting array of political activism
for LGBTIU health and rights issues ... while working on this novel.Based
in a hilltop home overlooking the sea in Brighton England, he spent the
best part of a decade researching this novel, retracing the footsteps
of Antinous across Greece and Italy, as far north as Hadrian's Wall and
as far south as the Nile in Upper Egypt.Historical
facts are excruciatingly accurate ... even the positions of the stars
and planets at the moment of the birth of Antinous have been calculated
to precision.An
academic scholar can read this book with satisfaction, noting obscure
and arcane references which only the experts in the field of Antinology
fully appreciate.At
the same time, however, this is a fun book to read even for those who
have never heard of Antinous in their lives and who have no firm grasp
of Roman civilization in the 2nd Century AD.There
is intrigue, skulduggery, near-death by lightning, getting lost in a
subterranean labyrinth, a storm at sea, earthquakes ... and some fairly
hot man sex as well, albeit tastefully brought to the page.The
narrator is the Classical Love God himself: Eros. He shoots his amorous
arrows and ensures that Antinous and Hadrian fulfill the destiny which
the Fates have in store for them ... despite efforts by certain people
in the Imperial Court to thwart the Fates.

But
the genius of this book is that there are no black-and-white villains
or heroes. Antinous
is a young man with all the problems and drives of late adolescence.
Hadrian is a man with a mid-life crisis of doubt and regret.Others
such as Empress Sabina and her constant companion Julia Balbilla and
their coterie of fawning courtiers and freedmen are not really hateful
towards Antinous so much as they are simply perplexed by him. They
view him the way some members of the Royal Household might look at the
favorite Corgi of the Queen, unable to comprehend her affection for it,
her grief when it dies.

They whisper amongst themselves: What hold does Antinous have over Hadrian? Just who does he think he is? And is he a threat to them? What is so different about Antinous that Hadrian doesn't grow weary of him ... as he always has with previous toy boys? Because
they cannot understand how he fits in the scheme of Imperial court
life, some really rather wish he would just disappear ... voluntarily or
otherwise. And
through it all is the boyhood friend of Antinous who has accompanied
him on this long journey with mixed feelings and with growing envy and
jealousy. The
boiling emotions all stem from Eros, who winks knowingly at the reader
as he shoots one arrow after another with unerring accuracy to ensure
that Antinous fulfills his destiny ... to take his place alongside Eros
as a God of Love.The
result is a richly entertaining and beautifully written novel which
appeals to those seeking authoritative scholarly accuracy as well as
readers who just want a riveting and memorable adventure yarn.

The Love God is available as Kindle and as a paperback ...CLICK HERE to order.

Friday, December 8, 2017

A stunning video by the ALTAIR4 team of 3-D archaeological recreations portrays locations in Emperor Hadrian's life.The
video shows portions of Hadrian's Villa, Nero's Golden House, the
Acropolis in Athens, the Temple of Isis at Philae and Karnak in ancient
Thebes....

Thursday, December 7, 2017

ALL
those who believe in Antinous the Gay God hold a ticket for the Barque
of Millions of Years. We will all be together, making our way towards
the unseen Dark Star. This is a journey to paradise with Antinous...he
will circle the Sun until the last one of us has boarded..and then we
will set forth away into interstellar space until we reach his unseen
star...which is a gateway to other worlds beyond.Todos
aqueles que acreditam em Antinous, o Deus Gay, têm um bilhete para o
Barque de Milhões de Anos. Estaremos todos juntos, fazendo o nosso
caminho rumo à Estrela Negra invisível. Esta é uma viagem ao paraíso com
Antinous ... ele circundará o Sol até que o último de nós tenha
embarcado ... e então iremos para o espaço interestelar até chegar à sua
estrela invisível ... que é uma porta de entrada para Outros mundos
além.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

TALK about vintage wine … archaeologists at Pompeii today revealed 15 amphorae of the finest wine in the ancient Mediterranean world which had been stored in a wine cellar at the doomed city's gladiators school the day Vesuvius erupted.

The amphorae of Cretan wine were stacked lovingly in the wine cellar of the Schola Armaturarum (gladiators school) and still mostly intact.

They are the first major archaeological finds to be announced in 20 years at the site.

Ironically, the discovery of the amphorae is due to the fact that part of the Schola Armaturarum collapsed on 6 November 2010 due to neglect. In response to the collapse, a major project was begun to restore the gladiators school and search for more artifacts.

The amphorae contained the finest wine from Crete, says Massimo Osanna, the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

He and archaeologists Arianna Spinosa and Alberta Mastellone recognized among the vases discovered precisely those produced in Crete and noted that Cretan wine was regarded as the finest in the ancient Mediterranean.

Who could afford such quality wine? And was the wine intended for gladiators or the owner of the gladiator school?

More research is needed to answer those questions, says Massino Osanna.

The type of amphorae unearthed, in addition to wine, were used for the transport of oil and a fish sauce produced in Spain, different from garum that was also produced in Pompeii.

AN alluring mystery has surrounded this famous bust of Nefertiti since its discovery on December 6, 1912, incredibly intact and sporting vibrant colours, after lying in forgotten in the sands since the tumultuous days at the close of the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaton, one of the most enigmatic rulers of all time.

It was found by a German archaeologist in the ruins of a sculptor's house at Tell el-Amarna ... 20 km south of ANTINOOPOLIS.

In 1913, the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow its finders, part-time German-Jewish archaeologist and full-time entrepreneur James Simon and his Prussian colleague Ludwig Borchardt, to retain possession of the bust.The simmering controversy between Egypt and Germany boiled over anew when a German news magazine printed excerpts from documents which allegedly indicated Borchardt deliberately used subterfuge to "smuggle" the bust out of Egypt.

The documents are not new to scholars, however, who say Borchardt and Simon did not need to be devious.

Instead, the Ottoman Empire officials simply failed to appreciate the artistic value of the artefact.

Despite persistent rumors that Borchardt and Simon smuggled out the bust under a coating of mud, the plain truth of the matter is that Ottoman authorities failed to recognize the bust as a masterpiece. In those days, the stark style of the Amarna Period was not viewed to be as valuable as more traditional styles of other periods.

Borchardt and Simon, however, immediately recognized the bust's appeal to European tastes for Art Nouveau and other post-Victorian styles. They did indeed breathe a sigh of relief when the Ottoman authorities blindly gave their stamp of approval to their request for removal from Egypt.

Borchardt and Simon carted it off to Europe where Simon displayed Nefertiti prominently in his home in Berlin before later lending it to the Berlin museum and finally donating it in 1920 to the Berlin collection.

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 spawned an Egypto-mania craze as well as the Art Deco style.

King Tut's treasures flaunted the "decadent" style of the late 18th Dynasty, and Nefertiti suddenly was a fashion trend-setter.

Crowds flocked to the Berlin museum in to see Nefertiti and shame-faced Egyptian authorities realized they had made a ghastly mistake a decade earlier.

"They suddenly realized that this bust, which had been dismissed as 'un-Egyptian' in 1913, was in fact one of the most exquisite examples of Egyptian art," the Berliner Zeitung newspaper quoted one expert as saying.

In 1933 the Egyptian government demanded Nefertiti's return - the first of many such demands over the decades to come. One of the many titles Hermann Goering held was premier of Prussia (which included Berlin) and, acting in that capacity, Goering suggested to King Fouad I of Egypt that Nefertiti would soon be back in Cairo.

But Hitler had other plans. Through the ambassador to Egypt, Eberhard von Stohrer, Hitler informed the Egyptian government that he was an ardent fan of Nefertiti:

"I know this famous bust," the fuehrer wrote. "I have viewed it and marvelled at it many times. Nefertiti continually delights me. The bust is a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure!"

Hitler said Nefertiti had a place in his dreams of rebuilding Berlin and renaming it Germania.

"Do you know what Im going to do one day? I'm going to build a new Egyptian museum in Berlin," Hitler went on.

"I dream of it. Inside I will build a chamber, crowned by a large dome. In the middle, this wonder, Nefertiti, will be enthroned.

While he did not mention it at the time, Hitler envisioned more for the museum. There was to be an even larger hall of honour, with a bust of Hitler.

It was rumoured immediately after World War II that Hitler had commissioned a copy of the bust for possible handover to the Egyptians after a Nazi victory.

American Allied art experts claimed they found two wooden crates in a salt mine south of Berlin where the German capital's museum art treasures had been placed by the Germans for safekeeping during bombing raids. The two crates allegedly contained identical Nefertiti busts.

But in post-war confusion, one of the crates got lost. The whereabouts of the "other Nefertiti" are unknown - assuming it ever existed to start with.

From time to time over the years, there have been reports suggesting that the fake bust survived and that the genuine bust is lost. A recent documentary on Germany's ZDF television network revived that theory.

But a series of new CT scans come to the rescue.

They prove once and for all that the bust on view in Berlin is indeed genuine.

Whether there ever was a duplicate is now a moot point.

The exquisite limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti forms the focal point of the Berlin collection, which ranks among the top two or three collections in the world outside Egypt itself.The British Museum, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York are the only chief rivals to Berlin's collection, which spans all eras from the pre-Dynastic period all the way through to Roman times.Hitler's dreams of a monolithic new Egyptian museum never materialized. Hitler and his mad dreams are long dead. But Nefertiti continues to smile serenely. As she has for 3,300 years. As if to say, this too shall pass. And I shall endure.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.December
5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which
ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions
of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.Millions
of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening
of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December
6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.Children
who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have
been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine,
stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the
birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the
mythical Nicholas.The
truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing
only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of
them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of
mankind.

If
you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo
shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names
including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

The
legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia
Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the
birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's
sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas
grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated
to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient
mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately,
St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong
measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle
were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is
said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so
complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before
him".

St.
Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply
usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own
reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo
more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father
Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In
the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases
and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and,
thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in
English-speaking countries.

In
the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus
with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany
Santa's sleigh.

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In
English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all
his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one.

In
Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In
a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians
so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But
to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker
Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But
the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more
differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various
component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

Monday, December 4, 2017

INCREDIBLY, during the course of 2017, the German archaeological mission operating at the King Amenhotep III Temple area in Luxor has discovered 100 statues of the ancient Egyptian lioness goddess Sekhmet, according to the semi-official AL AHRAM newspaper.

The discoveries are part of an enormous CACHE OF SEKHMET STATUES found in recent months during a restoration project for the Colossi of Memnon, two massive stone statues of King Amenhotep III and his temple.Early in the year, 66 statues were found. That already would have been a record. But then in December 2017, nearly 30 more statues were found.

The project began in 1998 with the goal of preserving the remnants of the temple and rebuilding it anew, said head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the ministry, Mahmoud Afify.

The discoveries were made during excavations by the German mission in the area between the courtyard and the hall of columns in the temple. The excavation was originally made to search for the remains of the wall separating the two sites.

Some of the discovered statues represent goddess Sekhmet in a seated position, others depict her while standing and holding in her hand the symbol of life and a scepter of the papyrus flower, said mission head Professor Horig Suruzaan.

She pointed out that all the discovered statues are made of Diorite rock.

The statues are in good condition and well-preserved; they have an important archaeological value as they should provide a full image of the temple, especially after its collapse in a devastating earthquake in the pharaonic era, Suruzaan added.

The statues are undergoing restoration before being replaced in their original locations at the temple, she mentioned.

King Amenhotep III installed a large number of statues of the goddess Sekhmet to protect the temple from dangers and the king from diseases.Sekhmet, who is depicted as a lioness, was a warrior goddess and the goddess of healing, known to ancient Egyptians as the "powerful goddess."

If you admire the artwork of Antonyus, then order your own posters of his hand-picked favorite paintings and photographs.

A
wide range of T-shirts is available, including classic "T", fitted "T",
ringer "T", sleeveless, long-sleeve and baseball jersey — in up to nine colors, depending on the style and design you prefer.

The
handy Antinous Tote Bag is a must-have as is a wide array of Antinous
lapel buttons and refrigerator magnets in various sizes and designs.

Naturally, there are coffee mugs — and even an official Antinous beer stein appropriately adorned with the well-known Subian portrait of Antinous/Dionysus.

One
of our favorites is the Antinous Keepsake Box, available in
red-mahogany or black, with a tile cover portrait of the Louvre's
breath-taking Ecouen Antinous. This roomy box is perfect for any home
shrine or altar and is the perfect jewelry box.

And
of course the ever-popular Antinous bumper sticker (at the top of this
entry) provides the Beauteous Boy's blessings on any vehicle.

All items are ordered with safety and guaranteed efficiency through cafepress, which has a sound reputation for speedy delivery around the world, with secure payment in all major currencies.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

ON December 2nd, the Religion of Antinous honors the Marquis de Sade for being the first person since ancient times to proclaim publicly his adoration of the beauty of Antinous.

The Marquis de Sade was himself probably what we would nowadays call ambi-sexual. At any rate, homosexual activity is an important item in his program of revolutionary sexual libertinism.

The Comte Donatien-Alphonse-François de Sade, more often called the Marquis de Sade, lent his name to the complex psycho-sexual phenomenon of "sadism" ... that is, the derivation of pleasure from cruelty through inflicting physical pain, mental suffering, or both.

To this day, "sadism" (which was named for him) is a provocative term which turns off conventional-minded people ... and turns on those other people who are into Fetish, BDSM and the many other related fields of sexual endeavour.

Yet there is more to Sade's writings than sadism -- the term coined by Krafft-Ebing in his "Psychopathia Sexualis" (1876). For running throughout the Sadean oeuvre of plays, stories, essays, novellas, and letters ... and often overlapping with the most calculated outrages of his obscene novels ... is a philosophical discourse on freedom, power, evil and desire.Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade was born June 2, 1740, in Paris, France. The Marquis grew up in the decadent excesses of pre-revolution France's aristocracy.Sade's father, for instance, was arrested while "cruising" the Tuileries Gardens for male hustlers. Throughout most of his life, the Marquis pursued bizarre forms of sexual gratification, he was arrested for his excesses numerous times and spent several periods of time imprisoned.In 1772, he was sentenced to death as a "sodomite." Though the sentence was lifted in 1776, he was imprisoned for many years. Early in July 1789, as mobs rallied for the revolution, he screamed to the masses from his cell window in the Bastille, telling them that the prisoners were being slaughtered by the guards on orders of the aristocracy.

The mob subsequently freed him, but the cloud of immorality never lifted and he died broken in mind and body.

And yet it was his imprisonment which resulted in his literary legacy. While serving that sentence in the Bastille, he began to turn his extreme imagination towards writing books and plays, which are a summit of erotic poetry.It is from these works that the word Sadism is derived because the philosophy of sexual violence and domination was delineated and demonstrated for the first time by the Marquis in his numerous and detailed catalogues of perversions.

One of these works, entitled "The 120 Days of Sodom" was written while in the Bastille. When the prison was stormed during the French Revolution, many of the works of the Marquis de Sade were lost, including this work. It was miraculously rediscovered in 1904, rolled up in the frame of a bed, and subsequently published.

We consecrate the memory of the Marquis de Sade because he was a sexual revolutionary, who spoke quite openly about homosexuality, and who freely acknowledged that his valet Latour was his personal sodomizer.

And he was among the first to take up the name of Antinous for beauty and homoerotic purposes, naming one of the characters in "The 120 Days of Sodom" after Antinous, describing him in this way:

"Antinous: so named because, like Hadrian's favorite, he had, together with the world's loveliest prick, its most voluptuous ass, and that is exceedingly rare. Antinous wielded a device measuring eight inches in circumference and twelve in length. He was thirty and had a face worthy of his other features."

The Marquis de Sade died December 2, 1814, in Charenton Insane Asylum.

Friday, December 1, 2017

ON December
1st we remember the day in 1999 when a New Star was discovered in the
Constellation of Antinous ... a celestial portent for the rebirth of the
religion of Antinous in the 21st Century.

It reminded us of
that dark night 1,800 years ago when grief-stricken Hadrian looked up
into the heavens with tearful eyes and saw a new star in what had until
then been the Constellation of Ganymede.

Hadrian proclaimed it the STAR OF ANTINOUS and renamed the constellation after Antinous.

Flamen
Antonius Subia sees parallels to the new discovery which coincides with
the re-establishment of the Religion of Antinous for the new Millennium
and writes:

"In
1999 on December 1st, a Super Nova was discovered in the constellation
Aquila, visible with the naked eye. It was confirmation that the ancient
celestial event criticized by Dio Cassius as a lie might indeed have
occurred, prompting Hadrian to redraw the map of the constellations and
include Antinous among the immortal heroes of antiquity.

"This
new star named by astronomers Nova Aquilae v1492 was a sign of the
return of Antinous in the modern age. It was a signal to begin the
reconsecration of His sacred religion.

"The
light of this new star passed over the face of the Earth, illuminating
the hearts of all those who believe in him, effecting change and
demonstrating those whose eyes were directed towards the heavens that
the voice of Antinous was beckoning, and the time to revive his religion
had finally come, after so many centuries of silence.

"With
this sign from Antinous we are compelled, out of love to inflame
ourselves for his sake and to spread the light of the New Star to the
world."

DESPITE major advances, HIV/AIDS remains
one of the world's most significant public health challenges,
particularly in low and middle income countries, with new diagnoses
every year and young women in sub-Saharan Africa seen as being
particularly at risk.

World
AIDS Day on December 1 is used to unite people in the fight against
HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus first identified in 1984, to show
their support for people living with HIV and commemorate those who have
died.

The member countries of the United Nations agreed in September in a new set of global goals to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Here
are some facts about AIDS in 2015 with data from the World Health
Organisation, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, and UNAIDS:

1. Globally about 36.9 million people are living with HIV including 2.6 million children.

2. An estimated 2 million were infected in 2016.

3. An estimated 34 million people have died from HIV or AIDS, including 1.2 million in 2016.

4. The number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled over the last 15 years.

5. AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa and the second among adolescents globally.

6.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest prevalence, girls
account for 7 in 10 new infections among those aged 15-19.

7. At start of 2016, 15 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy compared to 1 million in 2001.

8. Despite widespread availability of HIV testing, only an estimated 51 percent of people with HIV know their status.

9. The global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million deaths since 2000.

10. In 2015, Cuba was the first country declared to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

WE all
know that the Ancient Egyptians believed you can take it with you ...
that death does not mean you have to part with everything that was
important to you in life ... but few people today understand that there
was a far more sophisticated spiritual interpretation.

Yes, of
course, the simple folk believed that you literally took things with you
to the afterlife ... mummified body, ushabti figures, food, clothing.
There was a huge industry specializing in tomb furnishings,
mummification and supplying the dead with sustenance.

But the
material goods in tombs were only symbolic of a far richer, and
spiritually deeper understanding of "taking it with you" after death.

The curious-looking winged snake on the papyrus of the 19th Dynasty scribe Amenemwija in Berlin's Egyptian Museum hints at that far deeper spiritual meaning.The deity
is called "Nehebkau" (Harnesses KAs) ... and he is poised in front of
the deceased ... taking in the every spiritual essence (KA) that the
deceased wants to take with him in the afterlife.November 29th was one of this deity's feast days.

The
Egyptians believed you give up only those things you don't want to take
with you ... you take anything and everything else which you deem worth
saving for eternity.

Nehebkau represents an advanced spiritual
element. In computer parlance, he "downloads" the spiritual essence or
"KA" of everything you want to have with you ... and Nehebkau defrags
and condenses everything for instant retrieval.

The "KA" is the
spiritual essence of everything. Each human has a main KA plus many
subsidiary ones. Everything has at least one KA ... every blade of
grass, every object, every animal ... everything.

Nehebkau
literally takes all the KAs of the person and all the KAs that the
person wants to have with him/herself in the afterlife ... all friends,
memories, pets, pleasant experiences, houses, furnishings ... the
spiritual essence of EVERYTHING ... and then he "downloads" them by
swallowing them into his slender serpentine body ... and condenses them
like zip files and defrags them and compacts and configures them all
into an infinitely small corner of his infinitely vast mind ....

It
is important to point out that this does not mean that the dead person
drains the life force from all friends and family and leaves them empty.
It does not mean they all have to die to accompany the deceased.

Instead,
it is exactly like "downloading" the essence of the persons or objects.
The persons and objects themselves remain intact ... their spiritual
essence is unaffected ... but Nehebkau has downloaded the spiritual
essence to accompany the deceased.

Nothing is diminished. Nothing is lost. The KA is copied and saved and filed away.

And
in the afterlife, the deceased retrieves any and all docs, jpegs,
YouTube URLS and files ... eternally fresh and alive ... for all
eternity.

We tend to buy the Judaeo-Christian idea of
ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust which means that we must "let go" while our
loved ones, memories and treasures all crumble away and end up on the
conveyor belt of the garbage incinerator ... like the final scene from a
"Toy Story" movie.

Or we opt for the Eastern idea that you
become one with the universe and everything dissolves away into one-ness
... no self, no ego, no death, no suffering, no end to suffering, no
end to death ... etc. ... like the final scene of a movie about Tibetan
monks and a little boy from Seattle.

These scenarios would have
been appalling to the Egyptians. You take whatever and whomever you want
along with you into the afterlife ... no carry-on bags necessary ...
everything is neatly defragged and compressed and configurated and
stored away in the infinitely vast mind of Nehebkau.

Yes, all of
your earthly friends, pets and possessions will crumble away ... but
their spiritual essence has been downloaded as a back up for you to keep
with you ... for all eternity ... thanks to Nehebkau.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

ON November
28th the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lully, who
was born on this day in 1632 in Florence, Italy.

Parlaying
his looks, his dancing and his musical genius into an erotic/artistic
career, he rose from being a scullery knave to becoming director of
music in the Court of French King Louis XIV.

By the time he died on March 22, 1687, he had created a new art form and had changed the course of the performing arts forever.

Lully's
story has some parallels to the story of Hadrian and Antinous. The
parallels are not exact. It is more as though Lully and Louis XIV were a
"parallel universe" story of Antinous and Hadrian with bizarre twists
thrown in to the plot of the story.

Lully was totally dependent
upon the Sun King and was totally devoted to him. When the king
expressed a whim to learn to dance, Lully became his dance instructor,
creating a whole new art form involving dance and song.

Quite
aside from his infamous carousing with boys, Lully was desperately in
love with Louis XIV. It was an impossible love, of course. It could
never be consummated.

The king viewed Lully as his artistic
mentor, but nothing more. Lully viewed the king as the love of his life,
and his art was merely an expression of that love.

Unwittingly, Lully planted the seeds for his own doom. Others took his idea and developed it further: And Opera was born.

The king became infatuated with Opera and totally lost interest in Lully's Baroque stage productions. He forgot all about Lully.

For
Lully, that was tantamount to death, and he soon died as the result of a
tragic "accident" -- he plunged a sharp baton-sceptre through his foot
in a rage of despair after the king failed to appear at the debut of his
latest masterpiece.

The wound became gangrenous, but when
physicians advised that the foot must be amputated, St. Jean-Baptiste
refused, saying that if he could never dance again, then he would prefer
to be dead.

Yes, his life was like some nightmare,
parallel-universe version of the Hadrian and Antinous story, set against
the backdrop of men in silk brocade costumes and in four-inch heels and
wearing ornate wigs. It is a story of a man's unconditional love and
self-sacrifice for his Sun King.

St. Jean-Baptiste de Lully had a
deep fondness for the Roman Gods, and he portrayed them with the gay
flourish of the the court of the Sun King. It remains a style all its
own, completely out of fashion...even among classical music weirdos.

We
adore St. Lully's music...we adore the grace and profound emotions that
pour from his chords. We love the beauty of his style of dance.

No
doubt when Monsieur St. de Lully arrived at the Divine court of Hadrian
the God, he immediately set about rearranging the Imperial Orchestra,
replacing the Ney Flutes with Bassoons and Oboes, dismissing the Cythara
in favor of Violas de Gamba.

Perhaps the old Greek musicians
might have taken insult at being swept aside, but with a wave of his
hand...Antinous calmed them.

So it was that the celestial
Imperial Orchestra performed the new opera Of Saint Jean-Baptiste de
Lully. The Imperial Court was astonished to hear the new sound. Even the
Greeks were amazed (and the Greeks had heard everything). And With a
wreathed nod of his illuminated head, Hadrian enthroned commanded his
beloved Antinous to dance.

When we join the court of Hadrian in the heavens, we will see Antinous dance to the new music of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lully.

Monday, November 27, 2017

"THE
most salient feature about Antinous, and the thing that makes our
religion different from others, is that Antinous was a mortal human
being who actually lived," said Antonius Subia in a global Skype link-up
this weekend celebrating the birthday of Antinous.Speaking
from the Hollywood Temple of Antinous to celebrants taking part from
across the United States, Europe and as far away as Brazil, he
noted that we know his birth date ... 27 November ... and we know what
he looked like from countless statues."He was a
human being just like you or me," Flamen Antonius said. "He was not some
ray of light of divine perfection. He was a person with faults and
failings just like any of us. And yet he became the last deity of the
Classical era ... we know he lived ... and we know he became a god."Joining ceremonies from Germany via Skype, Priest Hernestus offered a reading from MARTIN CAMPBELL's brilliant historical novel about the life of Antinous entitled, THE LOVE GOD, which has received critical acclaim.

The passage described the mountainous woodlands of Bithynia (modern Turkey) where Antinous was born in the year 111 AD.

More big news was made at the virtual-reality conclave was held in conjunction with ceremonies at the HOLLYWOOD TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS when Antonius announced the 4th Sacred Games of Antinous in the modern era will be held August 21st, 2018. Applications for entries are being taken now."Everyone
has heard of the Ancient Olympics, but there were other Games held in
antiquity," Antonius told the celebrants gathered at the Hollywood
Temple and via phone and Skype."And
among the most famous were the Games of Antinous, which were called the
Megala Antinoeia ... the Great Games of Antinous," Antonius said.
"These were Sacred Games which were held in Antinoopolis, Bithynia and
in Mantinea."The
most famous Games were held at Antinoopolis, the city founded by
Emperor Hadrian in Egypt at the spot along the Nile where Antinous had
drowned in the year 130 AD.

The competitors were primarily young men called Ephebes.

In Antinoopolis these included swimming and boat races in the Nile.

But the Antinous Games were unique in that they also included competition in the arts and music.

The
over-all winner was consecrated as the living embodiment of Antinous
and given citizenship in Antinoopolis, with an all-expense-paid life of
luxury and adoration.

He was worshiped in the temple as the representative of Antinous, the emblem of youth and masculinity. He was the Divine Ephebe.

The Great Antinoeia, as the Games of Antinous were called, were held for hundreds of years. But
little was known of the actual competitions until a fragile papyrus was
deciphered recently which revealed some intriguing and somewhat
shocking details about the Games of Antinous of the year 267 AD and two
wrestlers named NICANTINOUS AND DEMETRIUS.

The
Games of Antinous faded into obscurity ... but have been revived in the
past decade by us. They are held every four years during the cycle of
the blooming of the ROSY LOTUS OF ANTINOUS AFTER THE LION HUNT in August.

This is the IV ANTINOEIAD
of the modern era, and entry is open to everyone wishing to honor
Antinous with their own artistic, academic or athletic talents."These Games are open to all ... regardless whether you are gay and regardless of gender," Antonius said."You
can submit any form of artistic endeavor ... poems, paintings, videos
or literary works. But you can also submit dancing, running or other
physical effort ... as long as you provide documentation of your
performance art," he explained.Prizes
will be awarded to winners, details of which are to be unveiled on this
blog in coming days and weeks as the deadline approaches.